jerusalem. and when i finished the manuscript of this book i sent it hoping that he would give a brief comment. instead he wrote complete preface, and part of it was that he was shocked having read my book because he believed he was widely read in american history and jewish history, and yet he found some much in this book that he had no idea about before . incidentally, he is writing his autobiography at the moment, which should be fascinating. i will be using my notes a lot because i want to make sure i get the facts absolutely right. i would be leaving the net behind after words. anybody who is interested in check up on it. with rooms founding fathers, moses and joshua, his second-in-command, inspired

america's founding fathers to a remarkable degree. like most americans, having been brought up on the bible there were familiar with the history of the jews, especially their escape from egypt to freedom in the land of aaron. and they saw their own history as remarkably like that of the jews to an extraordinary extent. they compared their enemy, the british king george the third to the enemy of the jews, ferro. they compared their leader, george washington to moses, and they even saw a parallel between the atlantic ocean and the red sea. both bodies of water were a problem, but there were also a pathway to freedom. finally, they compared their 13 colonies with the 12 jewish tribes that the venture of the

united and flourished. it is not surprising that when they had to choose the great seal, which was to be on all official government documents in the future, thomas jefferson should choose a theme straight out of the bible. he suggested moses leading the children of is now through the wilderness on the way to the promised land. benjamin franklin also proposed a scene from exodus. moses parting the red sea and pharaoh being enveloped by the waves. instead, as you know, the selection committee chose the bald eagle for the great seal. however, the liberty bell became the symbol of the american revolution and with it a quotation from the bible, leviticus, in fact. to plan liberty throughout all the land and to all the inhabitants thereof. 1917, during world war one, the

british government in its famous bell for decoration expressed support for a jewish homeland in palestine. they then contemporary american president woodrow wilson also supported the declaration. so have every president since that time. these combine described in the book are zionists, wears sinus in the original meaning of the word, they go in favor of a safe and secure jewish homeland in palestine. and since 1948 in israel itself in fact the declaration. this book explains in detail of how and why they consciously followed the probe jewish pro is wrote policies and yell the bible with such a powerful influence on their critical thinking and decisions.

a few extracts from the book which i focus on 14 of the 44 presidents. that does not mean that the other 30 are not equally fascinating. one of my many surprises in working on this book is how historians of the american resolution and biographers of washington fail to recognize the importance of a jew named time solomon to the very existence of america. he is either ignored or dumped in footnote, year to the fact is he was vital to the success of the american revolution. without solomon it is conceivable that america would still be a british colony. search and without him the

evidence. to set the scene, washington had lost to recent battles to fight battles to the british. 20,000 troops had died of disease or exposure to the bitter winter. walked toward bare feet in the snow. a thousand u.s. not been paid in over a year and you need and killed two of their leaders, shot on the spot. others were leaving in droves. washington was also desperately short of arms and equipment. with several european countries secretly willing to sell and. he had the money to pay for them that is when high and solomon, a jewish immigrant came to the rescue provided that money for the arms and equipment,

washington then attacked the british a yorktown and won the war. solomon was not only vital to america's existence but also to its survival. in its early days it traced bankruptcy. again, solomon came to the rescue. yet, as i said to my high and solomon is missing from most books on american history for nearly a foot note. hal is the celebrated otherwise? there is a statue of him in chicago standing next to president washington. the u.s. stamp bears his name, and a u.s. postage stamp was issued with his portrait on a. as for the man himself, he gave loans at well below the prevailing rate and died a pauper. excuse me. oh, yes.

i have some of my own, as a matter of fact. it makes me know better, of course. as for president washington, he set the tone in his relationship with jews which most future president's adopted when he ensured an island at synagogue, aggregation that bigotry would not be tolerated in american. that conversation apparently was one of the earliest synagogues, reads this letter every year at the time incentive to. president john adams the second president greatly admired both that uc knew personally and the jewish warriors and profits he had read about in the bible. explaining why he was a zionist and a merc and one at that.

in 181890 years, almost a century before theodor herzl launched the world zionist organization, adam spelled out his own design is used. in response to a letter from a prominent american jew, more a kind of, who wanted to create a promised land for the jews in america, adams wrote, i could wish it in my heart that you will be at the head of 100,000 israelites and marching with them into debt and making a conquest of the country and restoring your nation to dominion of it. but i really wished the jews again in judea and independent nation. excuse me. no other american president is braced more emphatically and succinctly than john adams. it took in just 12 words.

the hebrews had done more to civilized man than any other nation. martin van buren, actively involved in saving jews from being massacred in syria, the ordeal began in 1840 when an italian priest and his servant were reported missing. then somebody suggested they had been murdered. although there was no suspect, the cry went up, the jews did. the government then arrested and imprisoned most of the male jewish population in damascus, all the city's rabbis, a jewish grave diggers, and even young jewish cool voice. they then began to torture the rabbi's, forcing their wives and daughters to watch.

excuse me. but the torture and kill them or lift them maimed for life. when american jews told van buren about the ongoing massacre , you went into action. he, together with british and european leaders, pressured syria to stop the massacre and to free the surviving prisoners. the syrian government eventually admitted that they had no, absolutely no evidence against the jews. the murders of the priests and his servant, if in fact there were murders, were never solved. fortunately, in syria today there are either none or very few jews. abraham lincoln, his close

friend and political adviser was none other than dr. zachary, a jewish rappers to also took care of lincoln's .. soon after his emancipation act, the christian scientists said that he hoped of oppressed jews in turkey and russia could be emancipated by returning them to their national home in palestine lincoln replied, that is a noble dream shared by many americans. during the civil war lincoln appointed a jewish generals to the union army, the confederates had not won jewish general. during that same more general grant ordered all jewish families expelled from areas where he claimed jewish traders were impeding the movements of

union troops. this spurred incensed jewish delegations to go to the white house and ask lincoln for his protection. the children of israel were driven from the happy land of canaan. they shall have my projection at once. he was as good as his word, and the order was cancelled. another of lincoln's many pro jewish actions was to make it possible to the first time for rabbis to become army chaplain's now, you're right l. levy comes into the picture. several american presidents had helped the amazing levy to become the first shoe against tremendous odds to reach the highest rank of commodore, which in today's equivalent is a national. during his spectacular naval career, largely because of the

navy's rabid anti-semitism at the time, he had been court-martialed many times. now he told lincoln that he wished to fight for the union forces. instead of the record of being court-martialed and sell some times lincoln appointed him on the u.s. navy court-martial board. now, here is a strange one. andrew johnson, who was lincoln's vice president, the only outspoken anti-semitic president, outspokenness the word, the only one who never spent a single day in school. he was also an alcoholic. however, after assuming the presidency he did one pro-jewish act. he reprieved a jewish who had been sentenced to death. he may have done more, but could not find it in the records. teddy roosevelt, in 1912, which

i believe is the year your organization was founded, an assassination attempt last teddy roosevelt with a bullet in his chest. nevertheless, he insisted on making a speech that lasted for 90 minutes, an hour-and-a-half before going to a hospital. he also displayed courage as leader of the rough riders during the spanish-american war in cuba. no encourage when he sought to make told a friend at the jewish fighters under is command in the rough riding and show the most astonishing courage. new york's police commissioner after he founded almost all cops were irish, he encouraged jews and women to join a force. years later a german politician arrive in new york to give antisemitic lectures. gee's protested, but dealers said that because of the first amendment he could not stop him from speaking.

the german claimed the jews never worked. so what t.r. did was to assign for jewish cops to protect the man around the clock. which delighted the jewish community. the man himself got a negative reception, including a broad chevron negs and returned to germany where he was solidly after killed in a car crash. did you know that the teddy bear is named after theodore roosevelt? they could not find any bears. then someone capture the wounded youngbear and proposed freeing it to let tea are hunted. instead, he added quickly put out of its misery. a jewish woman who ran a toy store read about this compassionate act and made it toward bear and put it in her store window. it was a tremendous success. then she asked if she could name

it after him. he agreed, and the teddy bear was born. it was even used as the republican symbol in the 1904 presidential campaign. as an example of his generosity after winning the nobel peace prize, he gave 10 percent of it or $4,000 to the jewish welfare board. during world war one his friend, colonel patterson, an irishman in the british army who had been a famous lion hunter, there was a film made about his early life called the ghost in the darkness to my belief. patterson led the jewish legion to victory against the turks in palestine and were one. the newly created legion was the first organized jewish fighting force in 2000 years. a volunteer force composed of

jewish refugees from palestine, jews from london england, colonel patterson was, for the jews, what parts of arabia was for the arabs. t.r. wrote to patterson congratulate in the jewish legion on its victory. his letter reads, referring to the bible, i had the sons of israel's might to, and it's something worthwhile. finally, in august 1918 after the end of world war one, t r bruck, jews should be given palestine. the assyrian christians protected, and the arabs made independent. now we come to herbert hoover. herbert hoover, like t. r., also zionist who made the following

proposal. palestine should be turned over to a jewish immigrants in search of a homeland transferring to an arab nation to restore an agricultural prosperity hoover had been a very successful mining engineer. beckham roosevelt, fdr the most if not all stories agree that no leader of any country that enough to help europe's endangers during world war ii. but fdr did more than most.

in january 1943, over 2 years before the end of the war he created the american refugee board. according to americans holocaust museum this save as many as 200,000 jews from the nazis. fdr has also been criticized for not bombing concentration camps and for saying that the way to head save the jews was to concentrate on winning the war. but, in fact, twice accidentally bombed while attacking nearby military targets. the outcome was disastrous. the first time august august 241-94-4384 prisoners were killed. about 400 seriously wounded. 316 prisoners were killed and 88 cards.

bond three times. and at least 340 prisoners were killed. rarely if ever mentioned, he, like his peterson said was a zionist. this is what he told a jewish friend. december the third 1942, i would actually put up barbed wire around palestine and i would begin to move the arabs out. i would provide land in some other part of the middle east, as i no there are plenty of places. each time we move up an arab we would begin to bring in another jewish family. now, i found the following

information absolutely fascinating. the british foreign office had information in its piles of a conversation just before world war ii between the british army colonel, colonel dixon and king dennis as saudi arabia. the king told the officer that for a muslim to kill a jew insured him immediate entrance into heaven and in to the presence of god. had the british want fdr about this it would have saved him distressful and freetown journey to attempt to persuade the bigoted arab monarchs to help jewish refugees. had the ailing fdr known it was an impossible quest he surely would have cancelled the trip and probably have lengthened his life. truman, what astonished the

above terminals this. as a boy he had willingly help his neighbors and, an orthodox jewish family with their chores. in high-school he wrote an essay supporting the actions. his business partner and close friend, eddie jacobson was a jew in the white house he treated his jewish advisor was jewish affairs with respect and consideration. german against the fierce opposition had held the jews get their homeland back. yet his wife and mother-in-law were hard-core anti-semites who would not allowed to in their home. not even his closest friend, eddie jacobson.

and there was even more surprised that he did not know rule them. would you call this stuff give them hell harry impact? as for his own anti-semitic slurs, to his actions speak louder than jewish words? it's up to you to decide. eisenhower, i can massey was known, had started l.a. very strange ideas about use to read as a child and eight fundamentalist christian home and as an avid bible reader, he believed that there were no jews on a. he believed that all jews or angels in heaven. correctly informed. the in the world were to mike

inspected a concentration camp and was horrified. he knew that after world war one the accusations of the germans have committed atrocities, it was refuted as allied propaganda anticipating holocaust denial see wanted the world to know what atrocities the nazis had committed so he convinced politicians to inspect the concentration camp. many accepted the offer and recorded with a sock, including an american congressman who will be well-known tune and lyndon johnson. said that he was convinced that i can the welfare of jewish refugees a heart. this is quite interesting. as presence during the war in the 1950's, he supported the egyptian leader against israel, france, britain forcing them to

stop fighting egypt when they were winning and allowing them to win the war and keep the suez canal. this is not very well-known. the end of his life i committed to a friend that he had made a big mistake. he should have supported the allies and not the egyptians. the allies including. lbj, was very surprised to learn that lyndon johnson was a member of the zionist organization of america. she once told them, don't ever go against israel because israel is a nation that was given to them by god. they are the only nation that got recognized as on. they are god's people. if you read the chapter on lbj in my book, you will find that heat lived up to her wishes, so much so that he, like kermit,

supported israel against the almost overwhelming opposition of his own cabinet. but it was not only his answer admonition that moved in. the russian leader asked president johnson why he supported israel, he replied because it is the right thing to do. shortly after becoming president, lbj was guest of honor at an austin, texas synagogue where it was revealed that as a congressman he had saved 42 jews from poland and germany and in what was known as operation texas he was said to have saved hundreds more, although the evidence to that is not conclusive. and it a now famous jew who claimed that lbj saved his life was erich leinsdorf became the conductor of the boston symphony

jimmy carter, one page. [laughter] there are many more in the book. an interesting character. there is little doubt that he favors the palestinians. i also believe he is genuinely committed to israel's surviving and furnishing. one, for example, when israel was in danger of an attack he provided the israelis with toxic the event -- top-secret defense equipment which the debt -- he did not even share with any of his close allies. that is all about him for the moment. when you get the book you will read more. reagan was sure he could review holocaust deniers. during world war ii as jobless process cells taken by u.s. army cameramen. one of the news films showed a concentration camp. he took a copy of it home and get to. a movie producer and his wife.

they expressed their belief that the atrocities or allied propaganda. reagan and showed them the film. they realize they had been mistaken. bill clinton did, several years before he became president his friend and baptist minister had predicted that he would become president and said that when he did god would never forgive him if he did not stand by israel. one of the many things that clinton did to help this role was to work exhaustively to get a peace treaty. eventually he blamed the palestinian leader when his efforts failed saying that arafat was impossible to deal with. i imagine that until now it is rare if not unknown for the leader of one country to express his love for the leader of

another. clinton said that he loved him and was grief-stricken when he was assassinated. this paper turning is not turning up too much. no president worked harder and with more fervor than clinton to try to broker peace in the middle east. .. in america and israel has never

been stronger. despite this remarkable record. what i was working on this book in 2012 only 8% of is really thought obama was pro israel. after releasing the visit in 2013. and shows the figure, and pro israel. i want to mention the report that accused israel of targeting civilians during this inco's in the incursion in gaza following kemper's from the attacks from gaza on israel. in the battle, formal commander

of british forces told you and workers in 2009, quote, the israeli defense force. and put it this way. the is really defense forces, did more to safeguard the rights of civilians than any other army in the history of warfare. obama's you and representative told the ghost of the report, balanced, 1-sided and unacceptable. and the israeli government would not cooperate with him and mentioned he was not interviewed any.

and reluctantly agreed that his anti-israeli report had been flawed. and never supported is true. and the think i'm losing my voice. and the mutual self-interest that there are three main reasons why american presidents have supported jews and israel. and admiration. and the president followed the viewers of the american people and all the while support jews in israel against many neutral enemy's. most of non informed non-jewish americans know that the jews

have suffered and throughout their range intend recent history's showed them the same bible, the same values to democracy. although jews are only 2% of the american population, one nobel prize in any category, 1% of their numbers. you may remember president john adams. and, and continue to do more for the advancement of humanity, and these are one of the reasons,

and will continue to give support to jews and israel. finally since israel's creation in 1948 american presidents have shown when the chips are down israel remains the only country in the middle east they can trust. thank you very much. [applause] i welcome your questions, and if you raise your hands the microphone will be brought to you and i hope there are lots of -- >> while we wait for a couple hands to raise maybe you could give us some more information and jimmy carter. >> very strange thing about jimmy carter, he organized the group called the audience and

seems incredible to me, the horrific russian propaganda, so anti-jewish and anti-israel, this group that is supposed to help jews and others in the middle east, a terrific name. it seems the organization toward him you would say it the underdog which of course israel was for for so long and seems very much without really being anti-israel or anti-jewish. and made a mistake, that was a mistake. no matter what he said or did, very difficult position to be

in. and is a bias towards the arabs. so many would disagree but you made the right. >> a couple questions. the revolutionary civil war, general robert e. lee's doctor was jewish, to go to stonewall jackson when he got shot. also he became head of the confederate red cross. he started civilization there and the death rate in the confederate army is close to what it was in the union army. that is one thing. >> what was the last thing you said? >> the death rate in the confederate army was a lot lower than the death rate in the union army.

they were not using civilization in the union army at that time. the other thing i would like to mention is a lot of the things you mentioned here at the time of war, winston churchill was also a scientist and he did a lot for is real and he went to a couple countries and said this will be israel and some of those reagan kings said they wanted to speak to him the next day and this would be palestine, and he said the next day, the radians came to him so they refuse to recognize the state of israel and wanted it back. that was after the first world war. he couldn't believe what he was hearing because they could not say that and getting them. part of jordan today.

to palestine, were never given to palestine. the part of israel is the part that churchill wanted to give to israel. >> everything you say is correct. the interesting thing about winston churchill was i was a young newspaper reporter at the beginning of a war, world war ii. and winston churchill being so pro jewish and fro israel and i wrote to a jewish member of parliament who was quite famous in his day and why do you think churchill is so pro jewish? he is intelligent. he was in fact lawrence of arabia to palestine after world war i. >> to israel. >> he admired wiseman very much

and apparently might have been an english bishop said something derogatory about why isman, lawrence of arabia rose a letter, it is uncertain whether he sent it or not in which he went to the bishop and said you must block wiseman's shoes. churchill was very pro jewish and had a slight change of course when a close friend of his was assassinated by young men in egypt. actually when churchill went with lawrence of arabia was his adviser in the middle east, went to a group to kill all the jews which learned from knowing quite

well, and they were saying -- somebody over there asking for a microphone. >> i would like to know how you least double coin. historic document. were you able to conduct personal interviews? or new your subject? >> a lot of research in the libraries which brings things up from time to time, new material and contracted the british office, and the british colonel who spoke -- had been secretive up until then. it was mostly going, reading on thousands of biographies about people and histories, the president's partner and

themselves. and for example, morgan quoted fdr saying he wanted to get that around the country and it was in his diary which wouldn't be accessible in one of the archives. >> i have a question about the st. louis. over the years i heard many conflicting stories about fdr's role, what he knew, what he didn't know. two of my college professors 20 years apart said if only harry truman had been in the white house, st. louis would have landed in the united states. i know there was some individual, rather prominent in the state department who was very anti-semitic and influence whoever had to be influenced to keep st. louis away.

to what extent did fdr know or not know what was going on with respect to the st. louis? >> none of the -- brokerage -- they were ready, and he lied to the congressman and more passports. there was a lot of -- several thousand jews to stay for a temporary passport. the passengers on that ship run to where they thought they would be safe. and that is one of the other ones? fdr learned quite early on about a woman who was a medical doctor, already treating the

jews but this man and a lot of care, and didn't do enough. no one did enough. >> i hatta family member on the st. louis. fdr was certainly not a jew lover. according to this relative who left germany, came to america, was denied freedom here and asylum here, went to britain, but his ph.d. came to the u.s. when harry truman was president, he was welcomed and ended up being with achieve of the industrial relations department at cornell university. he tells the story in a family

book that we have. that the jews in new that fdr was not their friend. that the jews that were in america knew that fdr knew about the concentration camps, new about the fact that these individuals fleeing for their lives and it took the bravery of them to allow this family member to seek asylum. cell i think there is a lot of misinformation about fdr in the jewish community. >> what do you think is the misinformation? >> the misinformation is that jews in america thought fdr was the hero because he entered the war. but he was no hero to the jewish people. in my opinion, because of what he didn't do. he allowed the arabic state

department to set forth doctrine of the united states while he was president. >> why do you think that? he would travel to the suez canal to try to persuade saudi arabia to help the jews. >> he didn't want them in america. they were fine elsewhere. go to israel, go to palestine but not here in america. they were not welcome than america. >> one reason for that, what was said, is jewish advisers told him a few that more jews in, anti-semitism so he was giving bad advice, the first thing you saw about your relative was terrific. what have you achieved? fdr will always be

controversial, know when is enough to help them but that refugee board, 200,000 jews. >> the real hero in american history is dwight eisenhower. because dwight eisenhower demanded their be films made of auschwitz when it was liberated and he said he was doing it so that deniers could never really counter the idea that the holocaust happened. and he was a hero, he should be a hero to the american jewish community. >> when he was in north africa, he was jewish because his publicity people had to do a lot of work persuading the arabs of consequences that he wasn't

jewish. how it was started, the school book, saying that something that he was vaguely jewish or something and contract did the library and said that was only foolish, anything in these wasn't true. he wasn't jewish. and supported nasa against israel, britain and france. and largely to the suez canal. >> i want to commend you for a fascinating book. i didn't want to comment on the first president, mr. washington,

much too young then. i would like to bring this back to what the young lady was talking about, mr. roosevelt. in my own case i know my mother and father when they learned of mr. roosevelt's death. and commemorating the debt by setting seven days. and this date has never been corrected. and the argument about mr. roosevelt that were written about him, it is true he didn't do much to save the jews but he did more than anybody else and that is ridiculous because everybody else did zero. and mr. roosevelt did very little aside from st. louis. the captain of that ship, not a

jew but a german. and once they were allowed, went to the coast of miami. people can still see the lights shining in miami and the government refused to let them in. everybody knew what was going on in the european theater. no question about it. these people were turned around. and this was in belgium and portugal and other countries which affect, most of them in concentration camps, over 230, almost a thousand, which did save them. million of them. as far as the other guy i remember clearly because i was

in the army at the time was mr. truman. mr. truman, 100% correct, and something of the first order, it was true other people have verified that no jews were committed, i don't know how much influence she had on mr. truman, and the first to recognize the state of israel. and other countries as you indicated earlier do not have interests, they have self-interest. that is the way it should be. when mr. truman raise his hand, his point was correctly, he didn't want the soviet union to be an influence and the united

states to have the influence in the release. in the release was oral. with 30 or 40 years. i did enjoy your book very much. >> and recognizing in israel, his jewish adviser -- >> very interested, i came today, you didn't mention some people i am interested in and that is kennedy and george bush i and ii. what you tell us about how they treated the jews. >> very interesting.

when he interviewed several of the israeli leaders in the white house and the american secret service information, and they were worried about that. and various other -- some of the stuff in the book. he was very fond of jfk and convinced he was very pro israel and as much help as they needed and who was the other president you mentioned? the other george bush -- he works very hard to help ethiopian jews to escape to israel. the latest one -- no question

the under george bush was very friendly with sharon, very sympathetic towards his views. both of the george bushes were very pro israel, no question about it. all of the presidents provided israel with arms and shortchanged them over here. >> i am very interested in why the israelis have such low approval rates of obama. really interesting that 8-18, when i was there the people i spoke to, we have a running commentary on this, really

businesslike, policies where anti-israel and when you say he has done so much, exactly what it is because perhaps it would change my views. >> another thing, recently -- some of the criticism from the israeli point of view or the jewish point of view is all the presidents have done this objecting to the settlements, objecting to several disputed territories, that is one reason. the other reason, 1967, for the peace treaty, mutually agreed

adjustments and that 1967 -- save for israel to go back to the 1967 -- >> they 1967, said that immediately, immediately said the adjustment. when the israelis complain about obama it is because he didn't understand anything. they thought he was a muslim because of his name and do was like a preconceived notion and i am talking from experience, i have a best friend who hates obama. she hated him, could never say a nice thing about him and the last visit called to say -- i have heard many is released tell me that. a lot more than the 18% that you know about. my family members, always

complaining about obama, not any more. this really made a huge difference. >> that is the interesting thing. people were showing that the speech he made before in egypt he was apologizi% obama, by say

he excused themselves to go to his family dinner and left benjamin netanyahu sitting there. >> it is amazing that the leaders of two great nations, were detailed and effective as great diplomats or politicians they could not get over that so pretend -- pretty right wing and obama is pretty left wing and to get two americans together to realize that -- who was it that was quoted as saying -- he was

very difficult to deal with. it was a british prime minister. am i right? benjamin netanyahu was very difficult to deal with. >> you can understand how benjamin netanyahu would be difficult to deal with with what he had to put up with. in regard to obama's visit, what a great speaker obama put is. if he could sway a country twice, could never sway another country to like him. >> anything the last meeting was not friendly? >> a great speaker but no matter what he said.

>> very timeless. >> with respect to obama, the prediction with respect to the future is something to listen to. and the settlements do not change, within 20 years the jews libya minority in israel but that would be catastrophic to make israel and apartheid state and the costs, it would prevent the jews from having a minority within 20 years. >> a lot of good discussion between the lot of people. and it was a little more exquisite on your own. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> there will be a lot of

interest to it. >> you are watching the tv on c-span2. forty-eight hours of nonfiction authors and books every weekend. >> author shirley woodhouse murdock talks about her book "the longest flight" the story of two pilots to embark on historic endurance flight to reopen yuma's local air base and remained in the air 47 days. >> an airport in the 20s, the military came and established a base in the second world war, but originally the army air corps and the u.s. air force.

and then attribute to yuma until the second world war ended and everybody laughed. we are not at war anymore since they didn't need it anymore and the same thing was happening to the proving grounds. and the little town of yuma, it was dwindling because people -- tourism had not been established, an interesting thing for yuma. they had a very bright future. the chamber of commerce said something would have to attract attention, good weather and try to get the air base to reactivate it. endurance flight, there were some food to going to chamber of commerce in arizona up 80 miles from here. and one was manager of the radius station who was promoting

yuma and thinking of things to do, and two of them know of an endurance flight in southern california. for 5,000 hours. we can do that, we can show the whole world yuma has good flying weather everyday. and every time the flight was mentioned it was in yuma, arizona and the military interested in reactivating the air base. and ex navy pilots, she said when the idea came up, that is the good idea. you find an airplane, i will fight and griffin was the manager and owner of the buick agency that didn't feel they could take time away from that

business. they try to think of another private and thought of bob wodehouse who was a navy pilot and he knew would be very well. and he became one of the two pilots. the airplane was loaned to them. and the aaa amusement co.. and took out two seats on the right-hand seat. sort of a mattress for off-duty pilot and four hours each. and the off-duty pilot could exercise, with gasoline and oil. they practice and figured out how to handle refueling how to scale lot for weeks and weeks.

and their first attempt failed. and for several days they have another major problem. and we will go up 3,000 feet where it is pull so it to the few months to get parts and repairs done for the airplane and get it ready but they took off on the 20 fourth of august and never touched ground until the tenth of october. they went to phoenix a couple times and raise supposed to drop a package and somebody at phoenix, check out the beaches a couple times, but stayed locally most of the time. their mother was taking a nap and the pilot of the moment kind of -- they went into mexico before we realized what was going on and said where are we? i don't know. you are the pilot.

seasonal flights look like yuma. what they were dealing with was pretty interesting. the friend of the family named george murdoch who i later married, a buick convertible which is sitting right here, he bought it for $2,800 and he and my brother started practicing with the car and the airplane to see how refueling might work and it turned out they took some cream cans that were two gallons capacity and a handle on to it so the off-duty pilot sitting on the right could reach down and the airplane went down the runway. in the abandoned air base whatever direction they wanted to go and around 65 miles an hour and the crew from the car would hand the gasoline and the off-duty pilot would reach down and pick it up and maybe four can during a run and they would

do more runs until they had enough to last about 12 hours later, refueling at 6:00 in the morning and 6:00 in the evening and later near the end of the flight they increased and had one in the wee hours of the morning because the engine was getting tired and they didn't want too much weight in the airplane and they changed that but it would make a circle around for a second run the off-duty pilot would for the gasoline from that two gallon can into a reserve tank that was installed and handed down on the next run and take full and take up food and bathing and a little bit of a change of clothing and they could go whatever direction they wanted to according to the wind. it was 500 acres of asphalt. the crew was all volunteer. everything was volunteer. food was prepared by local restaurant and delivered to the

airport by the police. there wasn't a paid our involved in the whole project and it was the spirit of yuma was involved. when pilots blink their nights at night by morse code with their friends on the ground, if rebuild lady in town thought they were blinking back at her from their porch light. they were the heroes of the day. they started getting national attention at some point as they neared breaking the record and there was a program called news of the world on radio and he got involved about the time they broke the record and interviewed the pilots by radio every night in news of the world. arizona radio carried it all the time and the newsreel got involved at some point in time kind of late in the flight and they had a news service, received newspaper clippings from 32 different countries.

they landed on the tenth of october and the whole town when they broke the record, the lights went out, everything turned off. i missed that because i was away at school but when the actual record was broken every siren and train was going, church bell, carl koren, , a taxi, everything made a noise. they didn't complain about anything. they did complain about anything and needed to be wives. they had jobs. bill haas a few pounds. that was not serious but it did

happen. >> what happened to the base? >> it reopened within a little more than a year in 1951, it became proactive and every military, 80 -- every navy or marine pilot trains right here and commanding officers of those bases give credit to what is supposed to be the flight, and approving grounds reopened again, the city went from 9,000 to last i heard was 110, probably more than that. >> what happened to the plane? >> unfortunately it was sold. nobody knows why in the world's the airplane got away but it did. and on the flight he and another man decided to trace it down to trace it through the faa a,

through 19 different donors. and in advance of the 50th anniversary of the flight and in minnesota, the farmer had floats on it. and the chamber of commerce got involved and purchased it from the man, he realized it was important by that time. they went in that you all truck and sent it back, two years restoring it to its original condition. it has been in a storage room for years without a good home. and before he was elected, if i am elected, know -- was a range to be put here in city hall. and we found the car, and war now, quick starts and stops.

my husband and i found another car, the same model, and london indefinitely to the city. >> what of those pilots never got in the plane? >> probably would have struggled along, maybe tourism would have become a matter of interest. >> like our astronauts, it was a local big deal and made a huge difference in the history of yuma. >> a look at one book yuma, local literacy programs funded by the "yuma sun" and public library to engage a dialogue about issues important to the world. and a recent visit to yuma, arizona with the help of local partner for time warner cable.

>> as you may know nancy pearl, at seattle public library. and in the 90s, in the early 2,000s the state of arizona started a program. the library started, in arizona, we started to piggyback on that idea. and that was an initiative of the "yuma sun" and the next year we went and were just talking about what to do with this program. and how can we really make this successful? so the "yuma sun" newspaper and the county library partner up and the arizona western college library, northern arizona university library and verrazzano western college office of diversity so we have a lot of input from community

college, to ask what kind of programs they were looking for and what they thought teachers and students would be interested in so took another year to bring that together and once we did that we kicked off again formally in 2004, and was fabulous to work with and very understanding that it was our first year doing a big program with an author, wonderful to work with and was going on ever since. about five years, every year we get a positive response. the main point of contact for people here for the program and i never get complaints, how are you doing this? this is the great bookend appreciate you doing this. a la comes from people who are involved in the program and meet the authors and when you read a book you might you never get that tint. and very tired about it.

and there's not enough room. >> and garth stein wrote the art of raising in the rain, and the main library, and a special event friday morning, it was narrated by agog and an animal and at the humane society and the guy came to the heritage library. and will this humane society and the put the razor's too. in the normal -- >> we can't choose books that are topical to the community, and something people in our community can relate to.

and regarding the facility. we usually have a lot of response that way. >> and every year when we have the book selected to be updated, here's a link to the other stages. what they're planning on doing. and the ads are small but they had the websites on our home page. >> the ultimate goal is really to get as many people to read the same book and come together, and a great book or article but don't have anybody to talk to about it and bounce ideas off of each other and find out what other people thought of that and that is part of that event that